{"meta":{"version":"2.1","_links":{"self":{"href":"https://api.vam.ac.uk/v2/object/O117829"},"collection_page":{"href":"https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O117829/"}},"images":{"_primary_thumbnail":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2009CE2275/full/!100,100/0/default.jpg","_iiif_image":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2009CE2275/","_alt_iiif_image":[],"imageResolution":"high","_images_meta":[{"assetRef":"2009CE2275","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false}]},"see_also":{"_iiif_pres":"https://iiif.vam.ac.uk/collections/O117829/manifest.json","_alt_iiif_pres":[]}},"record":{"systemNumber":"O117829","accessionNumber":"A.17-1973","objectType":"Statue","titles":[{"title":"Virgin and Child","type":"generic title"}],"summaryDescription":"This object comes from the Benedictine nunnery of Saint Mary and Saint Sexburgha at Minster-in-Sheppey, Kent. The Virgin Mary was one of the two patrons of the church, following its rededication in the 1130s. The standing Virgin and Child was a subject almost unknown in Western European sculpture at this date. It ultimately derives from the Byzantine image of the Theotokos Hodegetria ('the Mother of God showing the way'). The more usual representation of the Virgin and Child in England showed the Virgin enthroned. Byzantine compositions were adopted by artists in Western Europe during the twelfth century.\r\n\r\nThe flat back of this sculpture is unusual, and suggests that it might come from a screen within the church. A screen of this type may also have carried a representation of the church's other patron, the Anglo-Saxon Saint Sexburgha.","physicalDescription":"The sculpture is in two pieces, with may pieces broken off, most noticeably the heads of the Virgin and Child, the Virgin's right hand and the Christ Child's left hand. The back is flat. There are indications of later reparis. During conservation treatment in 1979, microscopic traces of paint were discovered  on the larger fragment, and it is likely that the Virgin's robe was originally red.","artistMakerPerson":[],"artistMakerOrganisations":[],"artistMakerPeople":[],"materials":[{"text":"Caen stone","id":"AAT11318"}],"techniques":[{"text":"carving","id":"AAT53149"},{"text":"painting","id":"x30598"}],"materialsAndTechniques":"Limestone (Caen stone), carved","categories":[],"styles":[],"collectionCode":{"text":"SCP","id":"THES48600"},"images":["2009CE2275"],"imageResolution":"high","galleryLocations":[{"current":{"text":"8","id":"THES49714"},"free":"","case":"CA3","shelf":"","box":""}],"partTypes":[[{"text":"Statue","id":""}]],"contentWarnings":[{"apprise":"","note":""}],"placesOfOrigin":[{"place":{"text":"Kent (England)","id":"x29450"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":""}],"productionDates":[{"date":{"text":"1170-80","earliest":"1170-01-01","latest":"1180-12-31"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":""}],"associatedObjects":[],"creditLine":"Purchased with the assistance of the Murray Bequest","dimensions":[{"dimension":"Height","value":"86.2","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""},{"dimension":"Width","value":"20","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""},{"dimension":"Depth","value":"18","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""}],"dimensionsNote":"Measured for the Medieval and Renaissance Galleries","marksAndInscriptions":[],"objectHistory":"This object comes from the church of Benedictine nunnery of Saint Mary and Saint Sexburgha at Minster-in-Sheppey, Kent. The Virgin Mary was one of the two patrons of the church, following its rededication in the 1130s.\n\nHistorical significance: The incised abstract drapery patterns on the figures, particularly on the Virgin's robe, are typically Romanesque features, as is Christ's expressively enlarged hand, with its emphatic blessing gesture.\r\n\r\nThe unusual iconography demonstrates that artistic ideas could be widely transmitted in this period, even when they were re-used in completely different contexts.","historicalContext":"The flat back of this sculpture is unusual, and suggests that it might come from a screen within the church. A screen of this type may also have carried a representation of the church's other patron, the Anglo-Saxon Saint Sexburgha.\r\n\r\nThe standing Virgin and Child was a subject almost unknown in Western European sculpture at this date. This type of image ultimately derives from the Byzantine image of the Theotokos Hodegetria ('the Mother of God showing the way'). The more usual representation of the Virgin and Child in England showed the Virgin enthroned.","briefDescription":"Statue of the Virgin and Child","bibliographicReferences":[{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"G. Zarnecki, 'A 12th century column-figure of the standing Virgin and Child from Minster-in-Sheppey, Kent', in Kunsthistorische Forshungen, Otto Pächt zu seinem 70. Geburtstag, Salzburg, 1972, pp. 208-214"},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"M. Thurlby, 'A twelfth-century figure fragment from Lewes Priory' in Sussex Archaeological Collections, 120, 1982, pp. 215-223"},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"P. Williamson, Catalogue of Romanesque Sculpture, London, 1983, pp. 92-93, cat. no. 42"},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"R. Marks, Image and Devotion in Late Medieval England (2004) p. 43 fig. 24"},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"J. McNeill, 'The Romanesque Cloister in England', <i>Journal of the British Archaeological Association</i>, 168, 2015, pp. 34-76, p. 76, n. 120."},{"reference":{"text":"Zarnecki, G. et al (eds.), <i>English Romanesque Art 1066-1200<i>, London, Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1984","id":"AUTH353419"},"details":"","free":""}],"production":"This object was the subject of a study by G. Zarnecki, in which he connected the piece with another rare Western European version of the subject, at Vermonton in Burgundy (about 1160). He postulated that this iconographic type may have spread to England via Northern France. The dating of 1170-80 takes account of both the style of the carving, and this hypothesis. However, it should be noted that this object has more recently been dated slightly earlier, to the 1160's, by M. Thurlby, who has connected the carving with work done at Barfreston and Lewes Priory.","productionType":{"text":"","id":""},"contentDescription":"","contentPlaces":[],"associatedPlaces":[],"contentPerson":[{"text":"Virgin and Child","id":"N4691"}],"associatedPerson":[],"contentOrganisations":[],"associatedOrganisations":[],"contentPeople":[],"associatedPeople":[],"contentEvents":[],"associatedEvents":[],"contentOthers":[],"contentConcepts":[],"contentLiteraryRefs":[],"galleryLabels":[],"partNumbers":["A.17-1973"],"accessionNumberNum":"17","accessionNumberPrefix":"A","accessionYear":1973,"otherNumbers":[],"copyNumber":"","aspects":["WHOLE"],"assets":["2019LW2795"],"recordModificationDate":"2025-04-05","recordCreationDate":"2005-10-24","availableToBook":false}}